Genetic characterization among some Austrian and Hungarian cattle breeds

Abstract. Microsatellite analysis was used to estimate genetic diversity and relationship of 180 individuals belonging to two native endangered Austrian cattle breeds, Carinthian Blond (CB) and Waldviertler Blond (WV), and Hungarian Grey (HU) from Hungary. Twenty-five markers were used, and a total of 213 alleles were detected, of which 54 alleles (~25 %) were private alleles. Three breeds are clearly separated from each other with a correct assignment higher than 90 %. No bottlenecks were detected in any of the populations. A small amount of gene flow among the three populations occurred in the past. The closest genetic relationship is between Carinthian Blond and Waldviertler Blond (NEI et al.’s distance D_A, [1983]; D_A=0.11). However, Carinthian Blond showed higher mean number of alleles per locus (6.76), number of private alleles (17) and expected heterozygosity (0.663) than Waldviertler Blond (6.04, 9 and 0.631, respectively). The negative values of fixation index F_IS (−0.018 and −0.037 for CB and WV, respectively) indicated that inbreeding is avoided, a sign for a successful conservation breeding program.